Improvement in bearing-plates for piles



` the pile and its bearing-plate.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

HARVEY OARLEY, OF LONG BRANCH, NEW JERSEY, AND JOB JOHNSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGrNORSA TOSAID JOHNSON.

IMPROVEMENT IN lBEARI'NG-PLATESFOR PILES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 219,618, dated September 16, 1879; application filed May 5, 1879.

` To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HARVEY GARLEY, of Lon g Branch, in the State of New Jersey, and JOB JOHNSON, of Brooklyn, in tlie State of lNew York, have invented an Improvement in Bearing Plates for lPiles, of which the following is a speciiication.

In driving piles into sand under exposure to the action of waves there is diculty in maintaining the'pile in the proper position. Sometimes the pile itself sinks, because of the loos- `ening of the same under the agitation of the water, and the weight of the pile displacing the sand. Beneath a close and dense sand j 4there is sometimes soft'mud, and the pile will v suddenly drop when the 'from time to time without losing its power to support the pile in its original position.

In the drawings, Figure lis an elevation of Fig. 2 is aplan of said bearing-plate and Fig. 3 is a section of the bearing-plate and pile.

AThe pile will usually be a metal tube; but it may be a solid bar. It is to be provided with a point of any desired character.

The bearing-plate b is to be of a siz'e and character adapted to the surface upon which it is to rest. It has an opening through the center for the pile a, and it is strengthened byribs d, having holes through them for the reception of ropes o1" chains a', by which the bearing-plate is supported from the top of the rpile or from acollar, bf, while the said pile is being driven to its place. The hole in this bearing-plate through which the pile passes 1s larger than the pile, so that the plate is free Ato rest' upon the surface of the sand; and

there is a central hub of suflicient thickness at the portion of the plate surrounding the pile for a cavity to be made around the pile within said bearing-plate, said cavity having an inclined or inverted conical surface at 6,

and upon this surface there rests a group of time to timel according to the surface of thesand, because the balls are loosened by their contact With the pile, tending to roll them upwardly into the larger portion of the cavity;

but it' at any time the pile tends to sink, it cannot do so without carrying the bearingplate down with it, because the downward pressure of the pile tends to roll the balls down into a narrower portion of' the recess in.

the plate and clamp the pile as firmly as it would by bolts and nuts.

By this device we are enabledito prevent 'l the pile sinking; but the beari=ng-plate may sink from time to time if its support is washed awav.

Two or more of these bearing-plates may be used with the same pile if they sink into the sand. We remark that the efficiency ofthe bearingplate is not injured should the cavity become tlled with sand, because the balls will operate with a very slight movement in either direction.

There is an opening at s for the insertion of the balls after the bearing-plate .is around the pile.- This hole may be plugged up. The bearing-plate may be made in two parts, bolted together around the pile.

We claim as our invention- 1. The combination, with a pile, of a bearing-plate containing a cavity around the pile, and balls within said cavity acting to support the pile, or to allow the plate to descend, substantially as set forth.

2. In combination with a metal pile and a bearing-plate surrounding the saine, the balls, or their equivalents, to grasp and hold the pile, but allow the plate to descend and `rest v upon sand or material into which the pile 4 passes, substantially as set forth.

3. The bearing-plate b, having a recess surrounding the pile and an inclinedl surface for the ropes or chains connected with such ribs, and by means of which the bearing-plate is suspended or lowered, substantially as set forth.

Signed by us this 1st day of May, 1879.

HARVEY OARLEY. J OB JOHNSON.

Witnesses z WILLIAM G. Morr, GEO. T. PINGKNEY. 

